Facing Plato's Bullet

These three poems represent three different eras of war. The first represented is WWII in Cummings, "Plato Told." It is interesting how the author said that it took a "nipponized bit of the old sixth avenue el in the top of his head to tell him." Cummings is talking about how war is hell and how scrap metal form the Sixth Avenue elevated railway in NYC was torn down in the 1930s in and sold Japan, which they turned into armaments used in WWII. It is kind of ironic how we sell scrap iron to Japan only to be killed by it in a war against them. Cummings demonstrates how the person that he is talking about doesn't fully understand war until he pays the ultimate price, his life. In Komunkyakaa's poem, "Facing it," he talks about his emotions at the Vietnam War memorial. Having served in Vietnam, he speaks on how the sights at the memorial affect him. What I found interesting was that he feels that people are trying to forget about the war. He says, "a woman's trying to erase the names: No, she's brushing a boy's hair." It seems to me that the author feels very strongly about remembering the ones who have fallen and doesn't want their sacrifice to go unremembered. "Here, Bullet," talks about the war in the modern era. The author, Brian Turner, served in Iraq and Bosnia. He talks about the brutality that the bullet causes in war, and how it is where the world ends. Overall, I thought these poems were pretty depressing, and gave horrific views of war. But if that is what the reality of war is like then I guess the poems are pretty accurate.